Garment for retaining infants against displacement from a support



Nov. 3, 1953 2,657,688

I. TUCKER GARMENT FOR RETAININGINFANTS A NST DISPLACEMENT F A S OR Filed NOV. 19

INVENTOR IRVING TUCKER ATTORN Patented Nov. 3, 1953 OFFICE GARMENT FOR RETAINING INFANTS AGAINST DISPLACEMENT FROM A SUPPORT Irving Tucker, Merrick, N. Y.

Application November 15, 1949, Serial No. 127,491

1 Claim. (Cl. 128134) This invention relates to a garment in the form of a body covering vest or the like havin integral means at the lower portion thereof for retaining the same in connection with a support, on which a, child is arranged. More particularly, the invention deals with a garment of the type defined in which the integral means is in the form of straps having means for detachably coupling the straps in securing the same in position. Still more particularly, the invention deals with a garment of the character defined having strap ends for detachable coupling with a securing strap attached to the support on which the child is arranged.

The novel features of the invention will be best understood from the following description. when taken together with the accompanying drawing, in which certain embodiments of the invention are disclosed and, in which, the separate parts are designated by suitable reference characters in each of the views and in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective front view of a garment made according to my invention. showing the same arranged upon a seat, the latter being shown in section.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a modified form of strap construction which I employ; and

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of another form of strap construction illustrating an associate strap member attached to the lower surface of a seat, the latter being shown in section and part in perspective.

With infants or small children, difliculty has been experienced in retaining a child against movement from a high-chair or any other chair or seat, including the various types and kinds of toy vehicles, car seats and the like, as well as against displacement from cribs, carriages, etc. The purpose of my invention is to provide a garment which, in its simplest form, may be char acterized as a vest, completely enveloping the body of the child and having neck and arm openings, the vest having, preferably at opposed sides thereof, extending strap members which can either be directly coupled with each other after enveloping a support, such for example as a seat, or which can be detachably coupled with a companion or associate strap member, the latter being fixed to the support or seat.

With a garment of this type and kind, a child is freely and yet securely retained against displacement from the support, while permitting the child to flex or bend in the usual manner.

In Fig. l of the drawing, I have illustrated one adaptation of my invention, in which a body garment I0 is employed, the garment having arm openings, as at H, a neck opening 12, and the lower part of the garment is opened, as seen at I3. The back portions l4 and 15 of the garment are separated and are adapted to be detachably coupled by a separable fastener l9 of the type providing complete separation of the backs l4. l5 by the conventional pin and box coupling, as at H, disposed at one'end of the stringers. A lock type of slider I8 is employed to retain the garment in the closed position shown with the slider adjacent the top of the garment or at the back of the neck opening I2. The side portions l9 and 20 of the garment have extending straps 2| and 22, the straps being adapted to overlap and be secured together by several conventional snap fasteners 23. The snap fasteners may be so constructed as to provide different capacity attachments to different supports. In the present showing, the straps are attached in their closest or smallest assemblage for mounting upon a seat 24 of a chair or other article, such as heretofore mentioned.

It will be clearly apparent, from the illustration in Fig. 1 of the drawing, that the legs of the child will protrude forwardly through the lower opening l3 of the garment, in other words. the lower edge portion l3 of the garment will terminate around the waist just above the hips, so that the legs are free to extend over the front of the chair seat 24, as is customary.

In Fig. 2 of the drawing, I have shown a slight modification of the construction shown in Fig. 1, wherein strap portions 25, 26 are substituted for the strap portions 2|, 22 on a garment, such as shown in Fig. 1, the strap portion 25 being short and the strap portion 26 long, so as to dispose a separable fastener coupling 21 between the straps at one side portion of and at the lower face of a seat or other support. The separable fastener 21 is of the type shown in Fig. 1, or in other words, the separable type, so that the straps 25, 26 can be completely separated. This will be apparent from a consideration of the left-side of Fig. 3, in which a similar type of separable fastener is shown in a detached position.

In Fig. 3 of the drawing, I have shown at 28 and 29 strap ends only of a garment, similar to the garment shown in Fig. 1. However, in this construction, both strap'ends 28, 29 are short and terminate at their ends in stringer portions 30, 3| comprising the pin side of a separable fastener, the pin being inserted into the socket 3'2, 33 of the companion stringer 34, 35, the latter forming ends of an associate or companion strap It will be apparent that the sliders 3'l38 remain on the stringers 3435, thus in laundering the garment having the straps 28, 29, the worker does not have to contend with the box coupling, nor the slider. With the construction shown in Fig. 3, the associate or companion strap 36 is secured to the lower surface of a seat or other support 39 by tacks or other fasteners, as at 40.

With a garment of the type and kind shown in Fig. 3, the garment will be sold with the associate or companion strap 36 and the purchaser will attach the strap to the support. In some instances, several of the companion strap structures, as at 36, can be sold with a single garment, so that these companion straps can be attached to several supports or they can be sold as accessories, in which event, many different garments can be purchased with the accessory for attachment to these accessory straps. In this respect, the strap 36 may be constructed of totally different and stronger materials than that employed in the garment itself or in the strap portions of the garment.

The distinctive feature in my present construction resides in the use of a body garment which is arranged upon the child as any other garment of this type and kind and to the inclusion of the extending holding or supporting straps disposed preferably at the side portions of the gar- 4 ment and designed to be coupled with or attached to a support of any kind. In this connection, it will also be understood that different strap lengths can be employed on the garment or on different garments to attach the same for different holding uses.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

The combination with a seat having a pair of coupling members at spaced positions on the lower surface thereof, of a garment comprising body encircling front, back and side portions, lower side edges of the garment having downwardly extending straps, and means on said straps for detachable engagement with the coupling members of said seat.

IRVING TUCKER.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

